Jeff Lawson - Solving Problems Instead Of Selling Solutions

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Today on Lightning Bugs.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:01)
Share problems, not solutions.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:03)
I always have a hard time creatively, like in the studio, not micromanaging and not telling someone, giving them hints of how I think it should be solved.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:13)
You know, that will work, it'll work for a period of time, but it won't actually work to bring out the best in people.
You don't actually give the freedom, the flexibility to do that problem solving if you're told what to go do, if you're shared a solution. What you wanna do is share problems. So if you're handed a problem, you actually get invested in a finding the right solution and then making it a success.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:35)
You seem to allow them a playground and don't get up in their face too much.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:41)
The thing that people really love in life is that creative problem solving endeavor. Like that's sort of, I think, some of our best experiences, especially when we get to do it with other people.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:49)
Hi, if you're enjoying listening to Lightning Bugs, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. It helps a lot. Hello, this is Ben Folds. It's Thursday. Welcome to my little podcast, Lightning Bugs.
Today's guest is Jeff Lawson, CEO and co-founder of Twilio, one of the world's fastest growing technology companies. Jeff is a tinker, always creating and experimenting with software and devices. With his company and work ethic, Jeff has a very unique approach to problem solving, inspiring creativity in this company by looking for the problems instead of selling solutions. And you might think, a podcast on creativity, why bring a tech person in? Most of you probably know that's obvious. Technology is very creative, and creativity is often about problem solving. So Jeff gives us a little different insight into the world of creativity, and also how to work with other people who are creative. He's overseeing this whole group, whole team of software developers, and he considers them artists. Let's see what Jeff is working on.
This is cool, because the times that we've talked before has been very me-centered, and you've been such a gracious interviewer and host. And so rudely, I didn't do enough of my research as to what you did. To me, you're the cool dude that came backstage with your family once, and we talked on the internet.
So I started stalking you because I felt like we were talking about stuff that, I don't know, you knew something and turns out you do. So this is really fun. So I went all over the internet looking for it. Your company, Twilio, is conspicuously un-famous for the punter and the layman, considering the incredible success it's had. Do you kind of dig that angle of it? I mean, I did get your app, and I don't know what it does yet, an app, and I don't know what it does yet. Maybe you can tell me what this does at some point. It's called Authy?
Yeah.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:27)
Authy, yeah.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:28)
Yeah.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:29)
That's the only actual consumer app that we have. And what Authy does is a lot of companies use us to secure your login, right? So if you log into Netflix, they'll send you a text message with a six-digit code you have to enter to prove that you are who you say you are, just to provide another layer of security for your account.
And what Authy does is it kind of does that just without the text message. It enables you to get a secure code. But if you're somewhere where you can't get a text message, like on an airplane, or you just want the immediacy of it, you don't want to wait for the text message, Authy provides another solution for that. And that's really good. I mean, you've got to have two-factor auth for all of your online accounts nowadays, because all those password breaches that occur in the world where some company's password database gets exposed and you reused your password on five sites, it's like, oh, by no fault of your own, all of your accounts are now at risk.
And so you got to add that.

**SPEAKER_1** (4:25)
The reason I wanted you on here is because what you do has to consider all angles of creativity. That what you do is not only creative, but it really has to jump into the management of creativity and the personal relationships that happen in collaborations.
And so I just want to let you explain for a moment that because creativity gets, you know, gets put in the corner of the arts. And as you and I talked about before, creativity is part of life and in fact, is part of survival and certainly part of any success. So I'm going to hand it over to you so that you can explain to dummies like me what you do and any of the history of it so that we can take it on board.